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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26164261">to find the calm of it all</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MermaidMarie/pseuds/MermaidMarie'>MermaidMarie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Percy Jackson and the Olympians &amp; Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, Coming Out, Empath Jason, Human Nico, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Build, Superpowers, The Bright Sessions AU, but like different from the canon ones, knowledge of the bright sessions not required</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 02:43:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,669</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26164261</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MermaidMarie/pseuds/MermaidMarie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p><i>The thing about being an empath was that you forgot to have your own feelings.</i><br/>Jason Grace has lived with his new powers as an empath for a couple months now, and it's been overwhelming. With school starting back up again, he is bracing himself for it to get even worse. He could not have prepared for Nico.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Nico di Angelo/Jason Grace</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>94</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. colors</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>First of all, I'd like to thank my lovely friend Maggie for the idea of this AU. She is brilliant and I could not stop thinking about it, and now here we are and I'm writing possibly the most niche thing I've ever written. </p>
<p>Background information: The Bright Sessions is a podcast about people with superpowers going to therapy. It is very, very good, and I highly recommend it, but you don't need to listen to it to read this. This is actually based a little bit more on The Infinite Noise, which is a companion YA novel to The Bright Sessions, and it is *also* very good.<br/>Things you need to know: Atypicals is the word used in the podcast to refer to people with superpowers. The AM is the shady organization that keeps tabs on Atypicals and also provides some resources to them. </p>
<p>I don't know exactly how long this is going to end up being, and I also don't know *exactly* where I'm going with it, but I do know that if I didn't start writing it, I was going to lose my mind.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The thing about being an empath was that you forgot to have your own feelings.</p>
<p>It was exhausting, going through the day with waves of <em>everyone else, </em>their pain, their joy, their frustration. You learned to live your life shaped around how everyone else felt. You molded yourself according to things that didn’t belong to you, bending and faltering under the weight of it. And it wasn’t until you were alone that you’d remember—<em>oh, shit. I have my own fucking feelings, and they didn’t go anywhere. </em></p>
<p>Jason Grace had been having that experience basically every single night these past couple months, after his mom and sister had finally fallen asleep, their turmoil going mercifully quiet as they dreamt. High school was hard enough, feeling what everyone else felt in a building full of hormones and anxiety, and then Jason’s home life wasn’t exactly the most conducive to dealing with what his mother charitably called <em>his condition. </em></p>
<p><em>His condition. </em>As though being Atypical wasn’t genetic. Beryl Grace herself had low-level telekinesis. Never flashy enough for her—she always hoped to be <em>special. </em>Jason’s sister, Thalia, had super-strength, which Jason thought was a little unfair. Both his mom and sister had these helpful party-trick powers, and he was saddled with what was, essentially, the power to drown in everyone else’s problems. What a gift.</p>
<p>Anyway, the point was that sometimes, he tossed and turned all night having to shuffle through the emotions he’d had to file away for later, because everyone else’s feelings always seemed more pressing than his own. He'd mostly been dealing with his mom and sister all summer, and their feelings alone were so <em>loud. </em>The beginning of school was even worse.</p>
<p>So when he was stressed about a fight, or annoyed at a classmate, or worried about college apps, he had to put it off until his feelings were the only sound in his mind. Sometimes, he didn’t even <em>know </em>he’d had his own hard day until he was alone.</p>
<p>Which was why he'd been waking up in the morning for school even less equipped to deal with the mess that was his life than he had been the morning before. Barely getting any sleep at all, having to drag himself through the noise.</p>
<p>Well, this morning was no different.</p>
<p>Jason sighed, staring up at the ceiling. It had been a few months, getting used to this power. He’d always known about his mom and sister, that they had powers, but he had assumed the gene had skipped him. The way powers worked wasn’t well known anyway. He was just going to be a normal person. It was kind of a relief.</p>
<p>But then, <em>this </em>started.</p>
<p>Maybe he got it from his dad’s side of the family. He wouldn’t know—he’d never met the man. Maybe that was why he’d left—too many feelings. Jason could understand that, at least.</p>
<p>Jason didn’t care how he’d ended up with these powers, or why. He just knew that he had to deal with them, and it was harder every day, with less and less sleep and fewer minutes to himself. School had only been back in session from the summer for a few days, and it had been hell. He'd lost track of the number of times he'd had to hide in the bathroom to catch his breath. </p>
<p>Being around that many people was beyond overwhelming. He’d barely gotten the hang of being around his mom and sister, getting used to how their emotions felt when they got under his skin.</p>
<p>Jason could feel himself going crazy, but what could he do? Asking for help wasn’t exactly an option.</p>
<p>He got ready quickly, not wanting to be late. If he just kept his head down and toughed it out, he’d be able to get through it. He couldn’t let himself be afraid.</p>
<p>Downstairs, he could already hear his mom and sister bickering.</p>
<p>“You don’t need to be so combative,” Beryl was in the middle of snapping as Jason walked into the kitchen.</p>
<p>“And you don’t need to be so <em>condescending, </em>but here we are,” Thalia retorted.</p>
<p>Jason could feel the orange of their frustration like static in the air. It was stretching to every corner of the room and making Jason’s skin itch. Their feelings were just echoing off each other and Jason was getting the anger from both sides.</p>
<p><em>He </em>knew that what the real underlying problems here were—Beryl was feeling insecure and lashing out, and Thalia was feeling stifled and restless. They were never very good at understanding one another, but it got worse with every passing year. Thalia was in her first year of college now, still living at home for the sake of saving money, and it was leaving them both in this tangled mess of complicated emotions.</p>
<p>Jason could’ve tried to explain to them where the other was coming from, he could've helped them deal with their disconnect, but hey, on the list of things that were <em>not </em>Jason’s responsibility, actually: family therapist. It didn’t help that their frustration made him want to fight, too, so he’d hardly be able to mediate with these feelings messing <em>him </em>up.</p>
<p>“Heading to school,” he muttered, trying to duck out the back door before either of them pulled him into their argument.</p>
<p>“Jason,” Beryl said, her voice clipped and catty, “would you <em>please </em>tell your sister what stress she’s putting her mother through?”</p>
<p>Thalia scoffed. “Real nice, Mom. Dragging him into this. Just go to school, Jason.”</p>
<p>He stifled a sigh. “You both need to cool off,” he said, more to himself than anything else, but they both turned his way.</p>
<p>“Excuse me?” Beryl crossed her arms.</p>
<p>“Nothing, Mom,” he said quickly. “I’ll see you after school.”</p>
<p>He slipped out the door before they could say anything else.</p>
<p>His power never felt like it was good for much. All he could do was mirror how other people felt, which usually ended up with more agitation. He <em>could’ve </em>told Thalia that Beryl’s feelings were hurt, that her pride had taken a blow since her daughter seemed to have her life together more than she did. Or he could’ve told Beryl that Thalia was feeling powerless, a little lost, and she just wanted her mom to be proud of her <em>for once </em>instead of competitive.</p>
<p>But he was reasonably sure that if he’d said <em>any </em>of that, they both would have vehemently denied it and gotten mad at him instead.</p>
<p>It was pointless. And they would’ve gotten mad, so <em>he </em>would’ve gotten mad, and it would’ve resulted in a bigger blowout than before. Anger was good at building on itself as it was, and with Jason’s power added to the mix…</p>
<p>As always, Jason’s power felt like it did more harm than good. Typical. He’d hoped his senior year could just be <em>simple, </em>but nothing was ever simple in his life, was it?</p>
<p>At least on his walk to school, he had a chance to breathe. He took the long way, dodging the main roads in favor of empty side streets, avoiding any crowds that would threaten to overwhelm him. He didn’t want to get to school <em>already </em>tangled in the side effects of his powers.</p>
<p>As he walked, it got a little easier. The distance he was putting between himself and his family at least made the itching frustration fade away. It didn’t belong to him; he could leave it behind.</p>
<p>He was so tired, though. Not enough sleep, and then a wave of <em>that. </em></p>
<p>Jason just focused on pulling himself together. It would get easier if he just kept everyone at arm’s length, if he just put his own emotions on hold…</p>
<p>For a moment, the sky opened up for him, and a glimmer of pink excitement set his heart skipping. He looked up, noticing the kids on the front lawn of the house he was passing. They were laughing and scampering around the yard. He took a breath, a smile growing.</p>
<p>Well, his power wasn’t <em>always </em>the worst. At least he got to appreciate the moments like this.</p>
<p>At least now, maybe, his day might be able to start out okay. If he just held onto the pink excitement, if <em>that </em>was the mood he came in with, it would be easier to manage the mess that was a building full of teenagers.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The pink glow from those kids did <em>not </em>last. It didn’t even get him through the first ten minutes. It didn’t even get him through the first thirty seconds.</p>
<p>Because of course, his day had to start off absolutely bizarre. There was no way for Jason to have a normal day anymore.</p>
<p>The very first thing that happened was he nearly ran directly into a classmate the moment he got through the front doors. He tried to turn the corner and had to stick a hand out on impulse before they could collide.</p>
<p>And then something <em>weird </em>happened.</p>
<p>The classmate he’d almost tripped over was Nico di Angelo and Jason kind of… froze.</p>
<p>For a long second, Jason’s hand was just hovering on Nico’s shoulder and they were staring at each other without breathing. Nico’s wide, startled brown eyes glued to his, his shoulder tense under Jason’s hand as he held his books to his chest.</p>
<p>Jason didn’t know Nico well. Sure, they’d shared some classes over the years, they knew each other in passing, but Jason wasn’t sure they’d ever actually had a conversation. He didn’t know anything about the guy. They didn’t exactly run in the same circles—Jason was on the football team, and he didn’t know what Nico did with his time. If someone had asked Jason about Nico, it probably would’ve taken him a handful of seconds to connect the name to the face.</p>
<p>But now…</p>
<p>Well, Jason was having an unfamiliar experience. Even by his standards, it was strange. </p>
<p>Nico’s emotions felt <em>different. </em>They had this pulsing red glow, and they made everything else fall away. Like, truly, <em>everything else. </em>The rest of the world was barely even static in the background. Jason must’ve looked insane, the way he was staring, slack-jawed and wide-eyed. But he couldn’t help it. He was immediately underwater, surrounded by nothing but <em>Nico’s </em>feelings.</p>
<p>He’d never been in a crowd and only felt <em>one person’s </em>emotions. He could hardly register the other people shuffling down the hall. </p>
<p><em>Nico di Angelo. </em>It was like seeing him for the first time, in brand-new bright light, in vivid color. Jason didn’t know why he was so angry, so afraid, and so <em>unbelievably sad, </em>but the red of his emotions washed the whole room away and left Jason utterly breathless. His feelings were bigger than himself, bigger than both of them together, bigger than the room they were standing in.</p>
<p>Jason couldn’t say anything, and he felt a spike of yellow embarrassed annoyance pointed right at him. Nico jerked his shoulder away, scowling, and Jason’s hand fell back at his side.</p>
<p>“Watch where you’re going,” Nico muttered, a cloud of self-conscious anger in his words.</p>
<p>“Sorry,” Jason managed to say, his voice sounding distant and vague. He was sure he was still staring at Nico with a bizarrely shell-shocked expression. He couldn’t seem to make himself stop.</p>
<p>Nico shot a glare before stalking off down the hall. Jason was still, watching him go, realizing that his awareness of Nico’s feelings was following. Even as Nico turned the corner and went out of sight, Jason could sense his emotions like a lighthouse, clearer than anything else.</p>
<p>It took a few more moments for Jason to catch his breath.</p>
<p>He shook his shoulders out a little, trying to clear his head, but the echoes of that red stuck to his skin and trailed after him as he headed to homeroom. It was so much <em>more </em>than what he’d felt before.</p>
<p>Jason had only had his powers for a few months, but nothing had <em>ever </em>felt like that. Not even close.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He took a seat in homeroom near the window, hoping to avoid too much attention. None of the guys from the football team were in his homeroom, so if he got lucky, he wouldn’t have anyone greeting him and asking him about his summer.</p>
<p>As people filed in, Jason took steady breaths, adjusting to the tangle of feelings. Each person brought in their own baggage, their own colors.</p>
<p>Jason spent the majority of homeroom that morning just trying to get used to the noise, trying to make sure he could deal with it in order to get through the rest of the day. He also kept thinking about Nico—wondering what that had been about.</p>
<p>Jason couldn’t always tell where feelings were coming from, what belonged to him and what didn’t, whose feelings were prickly and whose were pointed. There was just so much of it. It was just too much input, and for the most part, Jason was left feeling a little lost at sea.</p>
<p>He barely heard anything the teacher said, and he couldn’t make himself look at his classmates, let alone talk to them.</p>
<p>God, people had so many feelings. He wished they could all just get it together for five minutes so he could have a chance to adjust, but it was never that easy.</p>
<p>Charcoal gray disappointment, heavy syrupy blue sadness, some twinges of magenta pride. Little echoes of excitement and joy when people saw their friends, like carbonated bubbles in the midst of the fog. It was all swirling around him in an incomprehensible mess.</p>
<p>He was supposed to get used to this eventually—apparently, according to the people who worked at the place that kept track of Atypicals, there was often an adjustment period for empaths. Once the ability kicked in, it took a few months (maybe a few years, but they said that was worst-case-scenario stuff) before being around crowds was manageable.</p>
<p>The Atypical Monitors—the AM, they called themselves—had offered the phone number of a therapist, but Beryl had turned them down without looking Jason’s way.</p>
<p><em>My son doesn’t need a shrink, </em>she’d said with a cool, stubborn smile, a jolt of petty pride.</p>
<p>Privately, Jason thought their whole family could use some therapy, but it wasn’t exactly up to him, was it?</p>
<p>He barely heard it when the bell rang.</p>
<p>He had math class next. Which sucked. People were always so <em>anxious </em>in math class. Jason wasn’t even that bad at math—the class would’ve been totally fine, if he didn’t have to deal with how much the rest of his classmates hated it.</p>
<p>So he was dragging his feet as he headed towards the hall. If he’d been a little faster, the day might’ve gone smoother.</p>
<p>As it was, he was out the door just in time to notice the cloud of spiked out emotions to his right. He turned, unable to not look.</p>
<p>Dylan, the resident obnoxious bully, was hassling the new kid in the hallway. They were both in Jason’s same homeroom, had probably been bickering slightly as they walked out, but it wasn’t until they hit the lockers that it started to get nastier and their feelings started to get loud enough the buzz in Jason’s ear. Demanding his attention.</p>
<p>Jason hesitated, both feeling like he needed to do <em>something </em>and like he definitely needed to leave this situation as quickly as humanly possible, before anyone’s emotions got to be too much.</p>
<p>Which seemed like it was going to happen soon, because the new kid (Leo something? Jason wasn’t sure) had <em>waves </em>of anger coming off of him. Meanwhile, Dylan had this sharp, sticky smugness that felt uncomfortable. Jason always hated how bullies felt—self-satisfied and insecure, and somehow full of certainty that they weren’t the bad guy.</p>
<p>“Dial it back, dude,” Leo snapped at Dylan, glaring.</p>
<p>Dylan laughed unkindly. “God, take a <em>joke, </em>new kid.”</p>
<p>“Try and be funnier and I will,” Leo shot back. He was standing up straight, puffing out his chest, and he was still significantly smaller than Dylan.</p>
<p>Jason almost winced at the way Leo was totally unafraid, despite Dylan being six-foot-something and built like linebacker. He might’ve been on the football team if he was even sort of a team player. Instead, he just used his size and strength to be a dick to everyone.</p>
<p>“I’m just <em>saying, </em>Valdez—” Dylan drawled, stepping closer to Leo like he was trying to show off his height advantage.</p>
<p>“Dylan, why don’t you lay off?” Jason said through gritted teeth, before he could really think better of it. Leo and Dylan were both getting defensive under their anger, and it was making Jason agitated.  </p>
<p>Dylan made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “Stay out of it, quarterback,” he said, not even looking Jason’s way.</p>
<p>Well. Jason wasn’t actually the quarterback, but whatever. Not important.</p>
<p>“I mean it, just get to class,” Jason said.</p>
<p>“<em>You </em>get to class,” Dylan said. He still had his eyes stuck on Leo. “I’ve gotta tell Valdez here what I did to his <em>mom</em> last night—”</p>
<p>Suddenly, <em>static. </em></p>
<p>In a frozen moment, Jason could feel Leo’s bright, sudden anger like lead in his chest. Like fire, flashing orange, then yellow, then <em>white hot. </em>The bright white was blinding, making Jason dizzy and absent and unable to parse through exactly what happened next.</p>
<p>The next thing he knew, a teacher was dragging him away from Dylan by his arms and he could feel the cold shock of surprise with a mix of some greyish fear. Leo was staring at him with wide eyes, and a few other students had gathered to see what the commotion was. Dylan, meanwhile, was on the floor, propped up on one elbow, his other hand moving towards his face.</p>
<p>Jason glanced down, unsure what happened, until he saw the blood on his fist—and the way Dylan’s nose was twisted at an unnatural angle.</p>
<p>Well, <em>shit</em>.</p>
<p>At least Jason could tell that the twisting dread in the pit of his chest was his own.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. alone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>It has taken me a minute to figure out just where I'm going with this, but I think I have a plan now! More or less, anyway. Plot has never been my strong suit.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nico di Angelo woke up in an empty house.</p>
<p>Which wasn’t anything new. Barely even notable, really. Still, it was the first week of school, and it stung just a little bit to come downstairs to a note from his father saying there was some big thing at work and that he’d be gone for a few days.</p>
<p>It wasn’t like Nico was expecting anything in particular. The days of his dad taking him and his sister out for ice cream the Friday of the first week of school to celebrate were long gone. After Nico’s mom and sister were killed in that car accident a few years earlier, basically any family tradition like that had been buried with them.</p>
<p>Still, it would’ve been nice to at <em>least</em> have been able to have a rare family dinner with his dad that week. Nico never really stopped hoping, a little bit, that his dad would at least make an effort to seem like he was capable of looking at Nico for longer than thirty seconds.</p>
<p>The excuse was thin, too. Marco di Angelo was an important scientist at the lab he worked at, and he cared a lot about his work, but Nico was certain there wasn’t a single person on the planet who genuinely had the power to tell Marco what to do. If he wanted to be around for his son’s first week of his last year of high school, he would be. It was that simple.</p>
<p>Nico told himself it didn’t matter. He could handle being alone.</p>
<p>He just dealt with the silence. It was nothing new, after all.</p>
<p>He flicked on the kitchen lights, sighing quietly to himself. Their house was far too big for just the two of them. The superfluous space just served as a reminder for everything that was missing. Nico privately thought it would be for the best if they moved, but he didn’t really want to. He didn’t want to leave the home his sister and mother had lived in, even if every day there just made their absences fester more painfully.</p>
<p>Nico made himself some coffee and some toast, moving slowly. Dragging his feet a little. It was only a few days in, and he’d already been reminded of just how much he hated school. Everyone there had friends—had people to greet in the hallways.</p>
<p>Nico had only ever had Bianca, and she was gone forever.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>School that day was… a little different.</p>
<p>Nico managed to fly pretty well under the radar at school. No friends, no enemies. He avoided everyone in equal measure. Honestly, he was just biding his time until college. He’d gone to school with these people long enough to know he was probably better off just killing time alone until college.</p>
<p>Nico was just a junior, but if all went well this year, he’d be graduating early and getting the hell out of there. Part of the benefit of having no friends was that it meant Nico had more time to keep his head down and work out his plans of escape.</p>
<p>He was used to being alone, anyway. At home, at school, what difference did it really make?</p>
<p>He had no reason to think college would be any better, but it was the only thing that got him through the day sometimes, so he let himself cling to the tragic hope of it. High school sucked. The small-town drama of this whole place sucked. Living in a house big enough for a family and making pathetic dinners alone sucked.</p>
<p>Statistically speaking, college probably would be better, so he might as well let himself daydream. Right?</p>
<p>He was having one of those daydreams as he walked in the hallway that morning, trying to wander in the general direction of his classroom so he could slip in at the last minute and avoid having to listen to everyone chatter with their inane small talk before homeroom started.</p>
<p>Apparently, he’d been daydreaming a little too much because he nearly barreled right into Golden Boy Football Player Jason Grace by the doors.</p>
<p>Jason’s hand grasped Nico’s shoulder, steadying them both, and then their eyes met.</p>
<p>Nico panicked, a little bit, for a split second. There was this absolutely weird, charged moment. Jason was staring at him with this intensity that Nico had never seen in him before. Never seen in <em>anyone</em> before, really.</p>
<p>He didn’t think anyone had ever looked at him like that before. Like they were really, truly <em>looking </em>at him.</p>
<p>Jason’s sky blue eyes were wide with some kind of shock and his expression had frozen into one of something that Nico could only describe as adjacent to fear or awe.</p>
<p>And for a moment, Nico was looking back at him with what might have been a mirrored shock.</p>
<p>Nico didn’t really know Jason Grace—why would he? On principle, he avoided the majority of the football team. He avoided everyone, but anyone too involved in sports was usually at the top of that list. Nico had a fair share of run-ins with the wannabe bullies within the jocks his underclassman years; he wasn’t exactly hoping to relive that. It was best to stay away.</p>
<p>Even so, Jason had always seemed a little different to Nico—generally kind, quieter, soft-spoken. Nico had a mild on-and-off crush on him for a while that he tried desperately to ignore and suppress. Really, it was sort of a background admiration—Jason was beautiful, and he was thoughtful in class. It was hard not to notice him.</p>
<p>Before Nico could let himself enjoy the fact that Jason was <em>staring </em>at him with his unnecessarily pretty eyes, he shoved the lingering crush away, getting frankly pretty irritated that Jason was here, in front of him, <em>touching his shoulder. </em>He flinched back, prickling with defensive annoyance.</p>
<p>He didn’t know why Jason was staring at him like that, but it probably wasn’t for, like, a <em>nice </em>reason, so it pissed him off.</p>
<p>“Watch where you’re going,” he bit out. They’d never talked, who the hell did Jason think he was, staring at him like he’d seen a ghost? It was insulting. It was rude. Whatever. Maybe Jason wasn’t as nice and thoughtful as Nico had assumed.</p>
<p>It didn’t matter either way. Nothing good came of people noticing Nico.</p>
<p>“Sorry,” Jason said in a weird, breathy tone.</p>
<p>Nico avoided eye contact as he shoved past, getting away and around the corner as fast as he could. He could feel Jason’s gaze still on him as he left, but he didn’t dare look back to check.</p>
<p>He couldn’t really breathe steadily until he’d put enough distance between them.</p>
<p>Well, that was <em>fucking weird, </em>and he didn’t really know what he was supposed to do with that experience, as a whole. It didn’t make any sense, and he wasn’t a fan of how it completely threw him off. He was just going to have a weird day now, and it was Jason Grace’s fault.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In his Mythology class, Nico took a seat in the back corner. This was an elective class—really, maybe the only one he was genuinely excited for, but his number one priority was still to remain unnoticed. One more year. One more year, and he was out of there.</p>
<p>At <em>least </em>he wasn’t going to have to deal with his long-term over-the-top crush this year. Percy Jackson had graduated last spring, so Nico wouldn’t have to see him in the halls anymore. Percy’s perfect girlfriend Annabeth had graduated too—they were both off at college together now, probably having a great time and being all obnoxiously in love, and Nico <em>didn’t care. </em></p>
<p>Maybe he cared, like, a little bit. But it didn’t matter. His stupid, tragically childish crush was going to go away now that he didn’t have to see Percy everywhere he turned.</p>
<p>Maybe he could even meet someone who could like him back.</p>
<p>Ha. Like that would ever happen. Especially here.</p>
<p>“Hey, Nico,” a voice startled him from his thoughts.</p>
<p>Piper McLean was settling into the seat in front of him.</p>
<p>“McLean,” Nico greeted back.</p>
<p>They weren’t friends, but they’d shared classes together over the years. They sort of got to know each other through the osmosis of sharing classrooms.</p>
<p>“Have a good summer?” she asked.</p>
<p>“Peachy, yours?”</p>
<p>“Can’t complain.”</p>
<p>With the pleasantries safely out of the way, Piper turned her attention away from Nico, greeting other classmates with a similar easy friendliness. Nico didn’t mind Piper so much. She never treated him like the kid whose sister died the way some people did, which was always sort of a relief.</p>
<p>When the car accident happened, Nico was a freshman. It colored the entirety of high school after that. Bianca had been two years older than him, and he’d only been around long enough to be known as her obnoxious little brother.</p>
<p>And then he was known as the dead girl’s obnoxious little brother. For the most part, people either got kind of nasty about it, or they got condescending, or they got pitying. It was just always <em>something. </em>For a full year, people were coming up to him in the hallways to tell him all about what they’d thought of his sister.</p>
<p>He decided pretty quick that he actually didn’t care at <em>all </em>what people had thought about his sister. He just wanted them to leave him the hell alone, and he told them as much.</p>
<p>It didn’t exactly win him any points, but it made people avoid him more. That was good enough for him, really.</p>
<p>Mythology seemed like it was going to be an interesting enough class. One last thing for Nico to look forward to before leaving—it was kind of nice. He listened to the teacher go over the plan for the semester, the projects they’d be expected to do, and he let himself be soothed by the familiar monotony of it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Last period of the day was Nico’s free period. He guessed he could just go straight home, but if he was being honest, he couldn’t decide whether it was worse to be at school or at home at this point. Either he was in this big, empty house, full of ghosts, or he was hiding out in some tucked away space in the school.</p>
<p>So he stuck around for a while, figuring he’d just wait until after the end of the day to go home and make himself dinner alone for the latest in who knows how many nights in a row.</p>
<p>Nico was hiding in a far corner of the library, trying to avoid… well, trying to avoid everyone. As per usual. What else was new?</p>
<p>“Yo, you hiding out here?” a voice said.</p>
<p>Nico glanced up. It was Leo Valdez, the new kid, who’d shown up in all of his AP classes. They hadn’t said more than a few words to each other in passing.</p>
<p>“Not hiding,” Nico said, a little defensively. “Just… avoiding.”</p>
<p>Leo put his hands up. “Hey, just asking if I could hide, too.”</p>
<p>Nico gestured vaguely at the remaining chairs at the table. Leo shot him a grin and sat down.</p>
<p>“What are you <em>avoiding?” </em>Leo asked.</p>
<p>Nico just sort of shrugged, trying to pointedly look back down at his book.</p>
<p>“I’m hiding from the principal,” Leo said, his tone energetic. “Dude, did you hear about the fight?”</p>
<p>Alright, fine. Nico looked up.</p>
<p>“What fight?”</p>
<p>Leo leaned forward on the table, clearly buzzing to share his news.</p>
<p>“So, like, you know Dylan, resident tool?” he started in a conspiratorial tone.</p>
<p>Nico rolled his eyes. “I’m familiar.”</p>
<p>“Right. So he was being a dick—go figure, I’ve been here less than a week and I already know his deal. Like, I’m new or whatever, so easy target, I guess. I know the drill—I’ve been the new kid before. Anyway, I was about three seconds from chewing him out, when this dude in a freaking letterman jacket comes over and tells him to cool it, right?” Leo talked fast, and with his hands gesturing.</p>
<p>“Which dude in a letterman jacket?” There were several.</p>
<p>“I’m getting to it. And Dylan was, like, unimpressed with this other guy stepping in, and I was just like, a <em>little</em> annoyed, because I totally had it handled, but then Dylan made a jab that was about to make me lose it—like, truly, dude, I was seconds away from punching the guy. But before I could hit him, <em>Jason beat me to it.” </em></p>
<p>Nico stared. “Jason <em>Grace?” </em>he asked, a little incredulously.</p>
<p>He’d been trying not to think about Jason since they’d run into each other that morning. Apparently, that wasn’t going to work anymore.</p>
<p>He tried to picture Jason Grace, the nicest guy on the football team, punching anyone. He couldn’t. It wasn’t an image that made any sense to him.</p>
<p>Well, at least if Jason had forced <em>him </em>to have a weird day, it seemed like he had one, too. Nico supposed that made things more fair.</p>
<p>“Yo, right?” Leo laughed, running a hand over his hair. “I mean, Dylan totally deserved it, but Jason came out of freaking nowhere with that. Dude’s been totally quiet and chill—I get that I don’t know him, but like, he hasn’t said a <em>word </em>all week.”</p>
<p>“Huh,” Nico replied. “Weird.”</p>
<p>“Yeah. So anyway, I think the principal was gonna come see what I had to say, but what am I supposed to do, right? I’m not ratting Jason out for sucker punching the guy. Dylan had it coming.”</p>
<p>Nico snorted a little. “Dylan always has it coming.”</p>
<p>“Exactly.” Leo fidgeted in his seat a little, glancing towards the rest of the library. “So what about you, why are you hiding?”</p>
<p>“I’m <em>not,” </em>Nico replied, irritated.</p>
<p>“Fine, fine, what are you <em>avoiding?” </em></p>
<p>Nico made a vague gesture with his hand, trying to indicate, well, everything. “Just avoiding in general,” he said.</p>
<p>Leo shot a smile, as he started pulling notebooks from his bag. “Hey, man, I get that.”</p>
<p>They settled into some silence, with their respective classwork. It was almost nice, actually.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Heading back home, Nico dragged his feet. There was no way his dad would be back, which meant he was on his own for dinner. Which usually meant ordering pizza with whatever money his dad had left for him, trying to scrape something together himself, or skipping food altogether to go straight to sleep.</p>
<p>He’d been meaning to cook something, honestly. But he was so drained. Today was feeling like a <em>straight to sleep </em>kind of day, actually. He’d seen and talked to too many people and he was just about ready to pull the covers over his head and curl up in the dark until the world quieted.</p>
<p>His house was dark when he reached it, because of course it was.</p>
<p>He leaned heavily against the door once he locked it behind him, letting out a sigh. He didn’t like being alone, he didn’t like being around people, there was never any winning.</p>
<p>Briefly, he considered the possibility of calling his aunt. But Hera was always so busy with her vague, important job, and the odds that she’d be able to take the time to answer the phone, let alone get dinner or something, was pretty low. It wasn’t worth it.</p>
<p>Nico just headed up to his room, distantly thinking he’d just have to set an alarm and get up early to finish his homework. And he curled up in bed, everything feeling heavy and like too much.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. quiet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>My writing speed varies greatly.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sitting outside the principal’s office awaiting punishment would’ve been bad enough as it was, but it was worse when Jason had to sit next to Dylan, who was shooting daggers of anger towards him. Dylan was furious, and embarrassed, and sullen. Jason’s own mood was twisting with him, and they were both just simmering in a cloud of bitter, self-pitying anger.</p>
<p>Jason hated it. He hated feeling Dylan’s emotions—Dylan was obnoxious, and a bully, and self-involved. Everything about his feelings was always colored with this selfishness, like he lacked any sort of care about how he impacted others. His feelings were always, <em>always </em>about him.</p>
<p>Which, of course, meant that until Jason could finally leave, <em>his </em>feelings were about Dylan, too.</p>
<p>At least he could still feel the tired disappointment sinking out from the principal, as well as some soft boredom from the receptionist. He tried to focus as much as he could on those feelings instead.</p>
<p>It felt like ages before they were finally given their punishment and sent home—</p>
<p>
  <em>Suspended for the rest of the week. </em>
</p>
<p>It wasn’t a great way to start the semester.</p>
<p>It was even worse that he had to wait for his mom to come get him.</p>
<p>She was much later than Dylan’s dad was, so Jason got to sit with the receptionist’s boredom for long enough that the residue of Dylan’s emotions faded.</p>
<p>Beryl Grace walked in with a slight huff, apologizing to the principal and the receptionist and not saying a word to Jason as she led him briskly out to the parking lot.</p>
<p>They’d been driving for a few minutes before she spoke.</p>
<p>“You <em>punched </em>a kid?” Beryl said finally, her hand clutching the wheel.</p>
<p>Jason tried not to sigh. He could feel her disappointment, but mixed into it was that sickly pink of bruised pride. She was disappointed in him for what he did, but not because it was <em>wrong. </em>She just didn’t appreciate that it made <em>her </em>look bad. Typical.</p>
<p>“I didn’t—I didn’t <em>mean </em>to,” he tried.</p>
<p>She shot him a hard glance. “Jason,” she said firmly. “You can’t use your <em>condition </em>as an excuse to act out.”</p>
<p>“I wasn’t—” God, Jason really hated it when he couldn’t quite tell if his frustration was <em>his </em>or if he was just getting his mother’s. “I wasn’t acting out, okay? It’s the truth, I didn’t mean to hit him. I just—everyone was <em>so angry, </em>and I…”</p>
<p>“Do we need to talk about some way to get this under control? Because this isn’t acceptable, Jason, I had to leave work for this.”</p>
<p>Right, her job. Jason sank a little in his seat. He knew that she took every opportunity possible to skip work. Washed Up Hollywood Starlet Beryl Grace, now teaching theatre at the local community college. She thought it was beneath her.</p>
<p>Beryl got this annoying glimmer of satisfaction at the way Jason was shrinking, like she’d won the argument.</p>
<p>“We could always take the AM up on their offer of a therapist,” Jason muttered.</p>
<p>The glimmer of satisfaction vanished right away and Beryl flexed her hands against the steering wheel.</p>
<p>“You don’t need a therapist,” she said dismissively, but the hint of fear underneath it gave her away.</p>
<p>He glanced out the window, sort of hoping that would be the end of the conversation.</p>
<p>But Beryl sighed, drumming her fingers. “But maybe we <em>should </em>talk to the AM again,” she said, like a concession.</p>
<p>Jason kept his gaze out the window, not reacting. He knew what she <em>meant </em>by that. She just kept hoping that the AM could offer some magic medication that could suppress his ability, even though they’d told her that wasn’t something they had available.</p>
<p>She was always looking for quick fixes, though.</p>
<p>Her ability didn’t interfere with her daily life. Neither did Thalia’s. But Jason’s did, and the fact that it was an inconvenience to Beryl meant that they needed to find the fastest solution possible.</p>
<p>Jason was sure that Beryl would just send him to boarding school if she didn’t think that would cause more issues for her in the long run.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Jason sighed, settling back on his bed. All there was to do now was wait out his suspension, hope that he didn’t miss anything too crucial in class. He managed to get most of the reading for the week done, with only his mom’s vague irritation distracting him.</p>
<p>Eventually, he felt the soft green glow of Thalia’s hesitance at his door.</p>
<p>“Come in,” he called. “I know you’re there.”</p>
<p>She let out a quiet huff of laughter as she walked in, closing the door behind her and sitting cross-legged on the floor next to Jason. He glanced down at her. She was giving him a forced smile, some bubbling worry underneath.</p>
<p>“It’s creepy, how you can do that,” Thalia said. “You just, like, <em>know </em>I’m there.”</p>
<p>“Your feelings are obvious,” Jason replied. “They announce themselves.”</p>
<p>“And what are you getting now?”</p>
<p>Jason shifted back, looking up at the ceiling. “You’re worried about me. And you’re a little nervous, too. I don’t know <em>why, </em>though.”</p>
<p>“Well, Mom told me about… what happened at school,” Thalia said slowly. Her hesitance got sharper.</p>
<p>Jason shot her a smile. “Oh, are you coming to lecture me about acting out? Miss Detention-Once-A-Week-All-Four-Years?”</p>
<p>Thalia let out a small laugh. Jason could feel her relax with a little relief. That was better.</p>
<p>“Nah, if you wanna start being a rebel, you know I’ll support you. I’ve had to be the problem kid forever, Golden Boy. I’ll drive you to get your first piercing if you want.”</p>
<p>Jason laughed. “I’ll pass,” he said. “I don’t think I could pull it off like you.”</p>
<p>“You never know.”</p>
<p>“I’m sure the football guys would <em>love </em>that. If I showed up with a lip piercing.”</p>
<p>“I was thinking <em>ears, </em>but really, you’d go straight for the lip piercing?”</p>
<p>“Oh, I’d fully commit,” Jason replied with faux seriousness.</p>
<p>Thalia laughed again, and her hesitance faded into some yellow calm.</p>
<p>The gentler mood settled and Jason exhaled, enjoying the calm.</p>
<p>And then there was another spike of nervous worry from Thalia.</p>
<p>He glanced over at her. “Okay, just say it, I can feel you worrying over there. I don’t need a second mom.”</p>
<p>Thalia snorted, some stale, simmering anger under the surface. “You barely have the first one,” she muttered.</p>
<p>“Thalia,” Jason said, with the <em>don’t start </em>tone that he always had to use when they were talking about Beryl. Beryl was never exactly the most attentive mom, but the way Thalia complained about her always made Jason feel like he had to mediate, like he had to make excuses for how little she’d paid attention to him. It was a conversation they’d had before. He didn’t want to defend her, but he didn’t want to hate her either, and getting Thalia’s bitterness under his skin wouldn’t help.</p>
<p>Thalia raised her hands in surrender. “Sorry. That’s not what I’m here for.” She dropped her hands back into her lap and met his gaze, tilted her head slightly. A low buzz of sadness floated into Jason’s chest, but he didn’t really understand why. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”</p>
<p>Jason sighed. “I’m fine. It’s fine. It’s not a big deal.”</p>
<p>“It kind of <em>is. </em>I mean, you got suspended.”</p>
<p>“Only for the rest of the week.”</p>
<p>“Jason.”</p>
<p>“I’m fine, really, I just… It was just a lot, but it’s okay, I’m good, it’s not a big deal.”</p>
<p>“<em>Jason.” </em></p>
<p>Jason sat up, sliding down to the floor to sit next to his sister, leaning against the bed.</p>
<p>“It’s overwhelming sometimes,” he admitted. “I’m still getting the hang of it. No—okay, stop with the pity, it’s so… sticky. God, just… I’m <em>fine, </em>I can’t talk to you about this if you’re gonna feel so sorry for me like that.”</p>
<p>Thalia smiled. “Sorry. It’s not pity, it’s sympathy. It just sucks that you’re dealing with this. I wish I could help.”</p>
<p>Jason shot her a weak smile. “I’ll figure it out, you know. It’s just gonna take some getting used to.”</p>
<p>Thalia reached over to ruffle his hair.</p>
<p>“No, I know you’ll figure it out. You always do.”</p>
<p><em>You always do. </em>Yeah. That was Jason, always managing to get back up and brush everything off. Never anything he couldn’t handle. He’ll figure it out, because he has to, because that’s what he does. People never really need to worry about him, because <em>he’ll always figure it out. </em></p>
<p>Jason felt some lurking, dark blue bitterness, surprised to find that it was his own. He didn’t usually get his own feelings front and center like that.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The next week, Jason told himself he was going to start fresh, make sure he had a clear head as he walked into the school. It didn’t go <em>great, </em>but it was okay. Slogging through the mess of emotions was always going to be a lot.</p>
<p>Because of the suspension, there were a couple classes that Jason had missed the first sessions of. It was sort of frustrating, starting off on the note that he’d already be a little bit behind in class. It was his last year; he just wanted to get through it without anything dramatic happening.</p>
<p>Slipping into his English class that afternoon, he was <em>exhausted. </em></p>
<p>Other people’s feelings were always <em>so loud. </em>Jason was sure he used to once have a handle on how to act in public—after his power started manifesting, he completely lost that. It took genuine effort for him to not curl up with his hands over his ears in order to drown out all the sound.</p>
<p>He sank into his seat by the window and suddenly—</p>
<p>
  <em>Quiet. </em>
</p>
<p>The buzzing swirls of everyone’s feelings faded almost abruptly. Jason straightened up with surprise. He found he recognized the feeling.</p>
<p>Red, it was soft red washing over everything else. This bitter kind of sadness, like background noise, like a pain you’d gotten so used to that you didn’t notice it consciously anymore. The kind of feeling you live with more than experience.</p>
<p>Jason craned his neck, turning to look at the back of the room, and sure enough, there was Nico di Angelo, hunched over his notebook in the back row, drumming his fingers on his desk as he doodled.</p>
<p>Jason stared for longer than he should have before the teacher cleared her throat to start class.</p>
<p>But Jason couldn’t really focus. He tried and failed to keep himself steady but it was so <em>strange. </em>If he really tried, he could feel the echoes of the other emotions around the room but the second he let go again, it was back to Nico.</p>
<p>He found himself glancing back over and over to look at Nico, despite his best efforts.</p>
<p>He couldn’t help it. It was already throwing him off-kilter that he was experiencing Nico’s emotions so strongly, so much <em>more </em>than he’d ever experienced anyone else’s. But as he lingered in it, he just kept wondering how Nico <em>lived </em>like this.</p>
<p>He’d known, in passing, about how Nico’s sister had died. It was major news at school, and Jason remembered thinking that it was sad, and that it must be hard. But it had never been at the forefront of his mind—he hadn’t known Bianca, he didn’t know Nico, and it became clear pretty quickly that Nico wasn’t the type to appreciate condolences from strangers.</p>
<p>If Nico felt like this now, Jason couldn’t even imagine how heavy his grief must’ve been two years ago.</p>
<p>Nico seemed to notice how much Jason was looking at him. Jason was really <em>hoping </em>he hadn’t noticed, but then Nico sank further into his chair and Jason felt a spike of annoyance, aimed <em>right </em>at him. Yeah, he’d noticed, and now he was mad that Jason was paying too much attention to him.</p>
<p>Jason spent the rest of class forcing his gaze forward. But he could feel Nico’s emotions like tendrils around his wrists, like magnets in his veins. They drowned out everything else.</p>
<p>When class ended, after Jason had only managed to listen enough to get what the homework was, Nico left the room so fast that Jason hadn’t even started to put his stuff away.</p>
<p>He stared at the door where Nico had disappeared, and he felt the red fade back away, and the rest of the emotions in the room became loud again. Kind of like when a song you were listening to on your headphones fades out and you hear the chatter of the world again.</p>
<p>Jason had a strange urge to follow Nico—to try to talk to him. He didn’t know what to do with that.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When Jason got home, Beryl wasn’t there.</p>
<p>That happened sometimes. Rarely with any notice beyond a scribbled note on the kitchen counter and maybe a twenty dollar bill for food. Beryl would just sometimes decide she needed some <em>time, </em>or <em>space—</em>to unwind, she said. Or to <em>get away. </em></p>
<p>Away from what, she never specified, but Jason could fill in the blanks.</p>
<p>It was fine. It didn’t upset him the way it used to—especially not now that Beryl being out of the house meant one less set of emotions to parse through. Jason could be around Thalia pretty easily, and if it was just the two of them, he could almost always feel his own emotions, too.</p>
<p>Jason was sort of relieved Beryl had chosen today to run off. He kind of wanted to talk to Thalia. He didn’t have anyone else he <em>could </em>talk to about the weirdness at school.</p>
<p>That evening, Thalia ordered pizza. It was sort of a ritual for them to get pizza the first night that Beryl was gone. The longest she’d ever been gone was a week, but it was usually more like two or three days. The first night, they’d order pizza, and the second night, Jason would cook. They didn’t even talk about it anymore, it was just an understood thing.</p>
<p>It was nice to have that kind of consistency. Jason and Thalia had learned a long time ago that if they wanted consistency, it was up to them to manufacture it.</p>
<p>They were at the kitchen counter with their pizza, and Thalia had been telling him about her classes when she paused and shot him a strange look.</p>
<p>“Okay, what about you?” she said, her tone <em>almost </em>casual. “Something interesting happen today?”</p>
<p>“Well…” Jason started.</p>
<p>Jason chewed at his lower lip. He could feel Thalia’s curiosity under his skin.</p>
<p>“Kind of?” he said.</p>
<p>“Kind of,” Thalia echoed. “Come on, tell me. You’ve been quiet all night.”</p>
<p>“There’s… this guy,” he started slowly. “In my English class. I can, like—I can hardly be in the room with him, his feelings are so overwhelming. He drowns out <em>everything.”</em></p>
<p>Thalia studied him, a slight tilt of her head. He felt some strange buzzing, but he couldn’t place the feeling.</p>
<p>“Okay—just… What’s that, what’s going on with you?” he asked.</p>
<p>“Wondering,” she said. “This guy—is it a bad feeling?”</p>
<p>Jason hesitated. His first impulse was to say that <em>yeah, </em>it was kind of awful, to feel all that red. Nico was so angry, and so bitter, and <em>so</em> sad. He had no idea how the guy contained it all. Jason had been deeply overwhelmed by it, barely able to parse through the noise.</p>
<p>But after a while…</p>
<p>Well, once it had settled, it didn’t exactly feel <em>bad. </em>It wasn’t uncomfortable, the way some people’s feelings were. It didn’t itch or hurt. And if Jason was being honest, there was something to be said for the way he pretty much only had to deal with Nico’s feelings in English class. It was distracting, sure, but it was easier to manage just one person’s feelings.</p>
<p>“Not exactly,” Jason said. “It’s just a lot.”</p>
<p>“Maybe you should talk to him,” Thalia suggested lightly.</p>
<p>“What, you want me to be more overwhelmed?” Jason replied.</p>
<p>Thalia shook her head. “It just seems like something worth exploring. If he drowns everything out.” She paused. “What does he feel so much of, anyway?”</p>
<p>Jason let out a soft sigh. “A lot of anger. Sadness, too. Something… something like loneliness. But none of it’s new.”</p>
<p>“You can tell that?” she asked.</p>
<p>“Well, yeah. Fresh emotions and stale ones feel different. I couldn’t, like, say how long exactly someone’s been feeling something. But—okay, when you get mad at Mom, that anger, it’s been around, y’know? It doesn’t feel the same as, like… Like the anger from that kid when I lost it and punched Dylan.” He paused. “There’s a difference between a fire that just sparked and a log that’s nearly burnt all the way through. It’s kinda like that.”</p>
<p>“That makes sense,” Thalia said. “This guy, would I know him?”</p>
<p>“Uh, maybe,” Jason said. “You remember Bianca di Angelo?”</p>
<p>Thalia blinked. “Sure, of course. She was in my grade.”</p>
<p>“It’s her little brother.”</p>
<p>“Huh. Yeah, Nico. I remember him. He was… energetic.”</p>
<p>Jason raised his eyebrows. “Energetic?”</p>
<p>Thalia shrugged. “Used to be. I wasn’t that close with Bianca or anything, but she talked about him sometimes—her nerdy little brother. He was big into some card game. I heard him talk about it once, when I went to their house for a group project—not sure the kid ever took a breath.”</p>
<p>Jason frowned, trying to remember if he’d known Nico at all before Bianca’s death. It was only a couple months into the school year when it happened. At most, he might’ve seen Nico around campus. It was strangely sad, to think that he’d never known that completely different version at all.</p>
<p>“He’s <em>really </em>not like that anymore,” Jason said. Thinking about the defensive edge in Nico’s emotions, like armor.</p>
<p>“That’s too bad,” Thalia said. “He seemed like a happy kid. Weird, but happy.”</p>
<p>It did seem pretty tragic. What a change it must’ve been, for all that red to seep into the background of Nico’s life.</p>
<p>“Yeah. Maybe I will try to talk to him,” Jason murmured.</p>
<p>Thalia smiled. “You’ll have to let me know how it goes.”</p>
<p>More than Thalia’s soft pride in him, Jason felt his own shimmer of nervousness at the idea. He hoped it would go okay.</p>
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